Knowing your Why

“People do not buy what you do; they buy why you do it!” – Simon Sinek

Personally I’m not into the fitness model competitions or bodybuilding competitions. I will likely never run a marathon or even a 10K. But I love my rugby, and always trained hard for it. The reason I mention this is that lots of gyms will promote these types of events and send members/teams and enter them in these competitions/events. Now this is great! But it’s just not me. It actually left me doubting if owning a studio was such a good idea. If I’m not really into the whole fitness industry and all the “fitness” conventions, why would I own a gym?

But I also realized that without being “into” that sort of thing, I have also consistently trained my whole life. It is as much a part of me as anything else I do. In fact it is one of my fundamental pillars. If I’m anywhere for more than a week I want to know where a nearby gym is so that I can squeeze in a hard strength session. Now again it has always helped that I was training for something. In my case rugby. Before that it was football and track and field. As much as I would like six pack abs and hulking biceps. That in itself has never been enough on its own to get me to the gym. It might be for you, it might not be. Either way success will come if you have a why and know your why. Doing it for purely health reasons, although important, tend not to serve as enough motivation. Over the course of this year I have experienced with clients, those who have come in because they would like to lose a few pounds, or their doctor has told them they need to lower their blood pressure, have honestly not been my most reliable or consistent clients. However, on the other side I am experiencing clients who play tennis, or who enjoy other activities like Salsa dancing, who have seen real advancement, or achievement, or progress as a result of experiencing some HIT every week. Those clients hardly ever miss. In fact with those clients I have more of my energy goes into making sure we are not over-training.

I bet if you really looked around you see this to be quite apparent. Almost all of us know exercise would benefit us, but we just don’t see everyone doing it or sticking to it for those reasons alone. So I encourage you to have that why, whether it be because you are into dancing, or soccer, or running that 5k, or triathlons, or having the best physique you can build. I will forgive you if it is not rugby, as long as you know why you are going to the gym. Doing so will help you keep that discipline. Remember motivation and inspiration can and will get you started. But it does take discipline and habit to keep it going. Knowing your why will help you do that.